Chapter Text
Passing through the large, colorful coral, you search for some suitable prey. The sun cuts through the water in bright beams that warm your skin. Your long tail expertly weaves through the sharp obstacles as you look for something to peak your interest. Some movement at your right catches your attention.
A school of large fish make their way through the reef, blissfully ignorant of the danger that is lurking near.
Steeling yourself, you get in position to lunge for your next meal when the group of fish get closer.
Your sharp movement startles the fish but one is too slow to react. Your sharp claws sink into your prey, sending wisps of dark blood through the water. You quickly put it out of it’s misery while the rest of it’s school scatters away.
You only caught one but that’s enough. You don’t need to worry about hunting more because you’ve been on your own ever since you can remember. You’ve never been apart of any pod.
You don’t know why you hatched alone, but you try not to let it bother you too much. You don’t want to believe that you were abandoned, but on some lonely nights, the voice in the back of your head whispers harmful things you can’t help but believe.
Although you don’t have your own pod, that doesn’t mean that you’ve never interacted with any other mers before. Sometimes a traveling pod will pass by and teach you things. But even though they are nice to you, they never accept you as one of their own.
Shaking your head to clear your thoughts, you focus back on the fish you caught. It’s a dull blue with some grey accents. It’s a nice size so it should fill you up until tomorrow afternoon or so. Quickly eating it, you head for your home.
A quaint little cave rests in the sand, beckoning you to enter. Inside is a comfy nest you made out of seaweed and other soft plants. You have a few makeshift stone shelves that hold little trinkets you have found throughout your time here at the coral reef. You spend your free time collecting various colorful shells and rocks, and if you’re lucky, you’ll find things made by humans. Not that you like humans though, you just like the things they make.
Your current prized possession is an intricate pocket watch that has a sun and a moon etched on the front. You found it in a shipwreck in the rocky parts of the ocean a few days ago. It is the nicest thing in your collection so far and you’re sure that whoever owns it misses it dearly, if they were even still alive that is.
Admiring the watch some more, you don’t notice the large shadow that passes over your home.
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Eclipse sighs deeply into his glass of whiskey as he sits alone at the tavern. A month ago, he had lost his crew, his ship, and most importantly, his pocket watch.
There had been an enemy ship that sought his end. You see, Eclipse was an infamous captain who led a powerful crew to many treasures and victories. This reputation of his brought not only admirers, but also enemies by the dozen.
Many were jealous of his strong leadership and despised his success as a pirate. This led to an overwhelming amount of feuds between other pirate crews and multiple law enforcement ships around the world.
Typically, Eclipse would have no problem dealing with his attackers, but this time was different from the rest.
He and his crew had just traveled through sirens cove, a rocky and thin path that led through the home of hundreds of deadly sirens.
His crew had their hands full with the vicious sirens and he was busy manning the ship, skillfully dodging obstacles that threatened to drag his ship under, when another boat had taken advantage of their situation.
In a matter of mere minutes, Eclipse’s life’s work was torn apart and sinking into the deep blue. Eclipse was the only survivor in a crew full of humans. His metal organs and silicone skin was far more durable than human flesh and sirens had no interest in him.
Reminiscing about his fallen legacy, he barely noticed someone coming up to his table.
“Hey Clip, I heard what happened to your ship.”
Sun, his brother, sat down across from him with a sympathetic smile. He always seemed to be smiling in some way. It would get on Eclipse’s nerves if he didn’t know how kind Sun was.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Eclipse huffed out. He knew his brother had good intentions but the wound was still raw.
Out of habit, one of his four hands wandered into his pocket to fidget with his pocket watch. His pocket watch that wasn’t there. His pocket watch that was thousands of feet under the water with his sunken ship and the bodies of the people that put their trust into him.
Clenching his fingers tight around his glass, Eclipse finished his drink and looked up to his brother who had started talking again.
“That’s alright. I actually wanted to talk to you about something else.”
“Oh? And what would that be?”
“Moon and I have been discussing going back out to sea again. We have a ship set up already but it would be difficult to sail with just the two of us.”
Eclipse stared at his brother, perplexed. They had taken a break from sailing for awhile because of a dispute over the morals of his crew. Eclipse understood their reluctance to be around his crew because of the general bad personalities pirates had. And while he was aware his morals were tainted, he believed he wasn’t too terrible.
Eclipse had failed to find pirates that had the heart of an angel, as was expected, so Sun and Moon refused to sail with him anymore. He didn’t necessarily disagree with their opinions of his, now dead, crew, but he needed the extra hands for such a large ship so he had to employ them. Not that it mattered anymore.
At Sun’s expectant silence, Eclipse finally gave in.
“Are you asking me to be your captain again?”
Sun smiled, “Please.”
Sighing and wishing he had another drink, Eclipse looked his brother in the eyes, “Alright.”